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| Photo credit: garryknight on Flickr |
In order for a story to be interesting, in order to keep
your readers turning the pages, there needs to be constant conflict. On every
page.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that someone needs to run in
with a gun in every chapter or that you need constant high-action scenes—in
fact, too much of the same thing, even something as exciting as gun fights and
car chases will tire your reader out and, eventually, bore them.
So how do you keep your readers interested between those
high-excitement scenes without exhausting them? The answer, my friends, is
tension.
The definitions (via Google dictionary) for tension are
actually pretty interesting, so I’m going to share them with you.
I especially like the first, third and last definition, but
looking over them I think you can get a pretty good idea as to what tension
really is.
Tension is like micro-conflict—it’s an underlying pressure
that should build up as the plot progresses, water turning into steam in a kettle.
When used correctly, tension brings your readers from the first plot point to
the last, it sews everything together and keeps the pages turning.
So how is tension utilized in a story?
I’m going to use a couple of popular examples (without
spoiling anything, I promise), because there’s a lot to be learned from
best-sellers. So.
The Hunger Games
(Suzanne Collins)—In the beginning of the book, Katniss and Peeta have to
pretend to be friends, an idea that doesn’t sit well with Katniss as they will
have to kill each other once the games begin. This is pretty brilliant on
Suzanne Collins’ part, because it makes every action (even something as simple
as eating breakfast next to each other) rife with tension.
Harry Potter and theSorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling) —Again,
taking from the beginning of the book, when we meet Harry he’s living in a
cupboard under the stairs with his hateful Aunt and Uncle who would rather
pretend he (and his magic) doesn’t exist. Instant tension.
Shatter Me (Tahereh
Mafi)—Without giving anything away, an
imprisoned girl who can’t touch anyone without killing them wakes up in her
cell to find a boy is now there. And a rather obnoxious one at that, who seems
to have no problem getting terrifyingly close to her. Tension.
Tension is a valuable tool that you can (and should) use at
every stage of your story—you don’t need to wait until a huge plot point to
utilize it, in fact tension at the beginning of your novel is a great way to
hook readers from the start. All of the examples I gave you come right from the
beginning of their respective novels.
Don’t ride over any opportunity to use tension—it’s a
valuable asset in your toolbox that can really hook your readers in right from
the start.
Are you using tension in your novels? What other examples of great use
of tension do you have?
